Union says bargaining monopoly claims a nonsense

The Maritime Union has described as nonsense suggestions the Federal Fair Work Act gives unions a monopoly on bargaining.

At a Chamber of Commerce and Industry conference on industrial relations, the head of employee relations at Woodside, David Sproule, said the legislation was seriously unbalanced.

He said labour costs at Woodside's North West shelf projects had risen by 36 per cent since 2010 and described rising wages as unsustainable and not in the national economic interest.

MWU Secretary Chris Cain says the comments are ridiculous.

"Go and have a look at Woodside shares and what they're worth at the moment," he said.

"They're making millions and millions and millions of dollars on the back of workers. and, as far as we're concerned, in boom times they should be doing training, training Australian kids, and paying decent wages and conditions under the EBA."

Mr Sproule says the act is unfairly balanced in favour of unions and demands for better wages and conditions were not in the national interest.

Mr Cain says major resource companies are complaining about wages to distract attention from their efforts to bring in more foreign workers.

"What is it, $350 billion worth of projects in this state and they haven't trained any Australian kids up," he said.

"It's a joke and we're determined to make sure the Aussies can work in their own country."